For a few hours on a Friday afternoon, a shrine stood in a lab at the end of a first-floor corridor in Wean Hall. Inside a nearly 9-foot tent, people solved four different puzzles to reveal words that they presented as offerings to automation and craft. One of those puzzles — and arguably the most difficult — was an inflated cube that participants had to manipulate to reveal the correct gift for the shrine.
While it may sound like a spiritual event, the shrine and its puzzles were all part of the Textile Jam, an annual event in the Textiles Lab where students and faculty from across Carnegie Mellon University collaborate on one project. The theme for this year’s jam, held July 22–26, was “Go Big.”
Participants from schools and departments around campus flexed new skills and taught each other as they brainstormed ideas, created puzzles, and worked to make a final piece that combined craft and technology. Students and faculty came from the Robotics Institute (RI); the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE); the School of Architecture; the Integrative Design, Arts and Technology program (IDeATe); and Cornell University.
“This is a huge fusion of techniques and ideas coming together,” said Jim McCann, an associate professor in the RI. “We’ve got analog tech, 3D printed items, knitting, sensors, code, sewing, fabric and more.”
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For More Information: Aaron Aupperlee | 412-268-9068 | aaupperlee@cmu.edu